Published: Wednesday, February 5, 2014 at 04:05 PM.

Pamlico County opposition to any ferry tolls remains strong going into a state Department of Transportation public hearing at 7 p.m. Thursday at Pamlico Community College.

It will be the third such hearing in three years over the issue of making the free Minnesott Beach-Cherry Branch ferry ride and others a paid route.

From a legislative order in 2011, the issue of increasing or creating tolls transformed into new General Assembly orders last year that the DOT could not enact toll changes without a request from local Rural Planning Organizations.

“What people need to understand was that the members of the RPO counties in this region are getting a lot of pressure,” said Pamlico County Board of Commissioners Chairman Paul Delamar III. “They are getting a lot of pressure from DOT board members, and threats are being made — that (highway) projects will not be funded if those counties with members sitting on the fence vote the wrong way.”

The current tolling changes would fund replacement ferries, with the legislature providing DOT the money for operations.

Delamar called it a “divide and conquer” strategy by the state DOT board.

“You take an RPO member whose county doesn’t have a ferry and you threaten that member with a road project that won’t be funded if the ferry tolls aren’t enacted,” he said.

Pamlico County opposition to any ferry tolls remains strong going into a state Department of Transportation public hearing at 7 p.m. Thursday at Pamlico Community College.

It will be the third such hearing in three years over the issue of making the free Minnesott Beach-Cherry Branch ferry ride and others a paid route.

From a legislative order in 2011, the issue of increasing or creating tolls transformed into new General Assembly orders last year that the DOT could not enact toll changes without a request from local Rural Planning Organizations.

“What people need to understand was that the members of the RPO counties in this region are getting a lot of pressure,” said Pamlico County Board of Commissioners Chairman Paul Delamar III. “They are getting a lot of pressure from DOT board members, and threats are being made — that (highway) projects will not be funded if those counties with members sitting on the fence vote the wrong way.”

The current tolling changes would fund replacement ferries, with the legislature providing DOT the money for operations.

Delamar called it a “divide and conquer” strategy by the state DOT board.

“You take an RPO member whose county doesn’t have a ferry and you threaten that member with a road project that won’t be funded if the ferry tolls aren’t enacted,” he said.

Delamar said the proposed tolls won’t raise enough money to pay for ferry replacement and won’t help fund any road projects.

“The facts don’t matter. DOT always wanted this and it has divorced us completely from the legislative process,” he added. “They kind of have us in a position. If the RPO counties hang together, there is nothing in the legislation that requires ferry tolls. The legislature didn’t do that to us, but the DOT is making it sound like they (tolls) have to be considered.”

According to the legislation, the RPOs are not under any mandate or guideline to take a vote on the ferry issue.

Pamlico County hired lobbyists Joe and Henri McClees two years ago to fight the tolls at the legislative level and they have since been retained for any state issues involving the county.

“The message we have worked on with our lobbyist is this is another end-run attempt by the bureaucrats at DOT to disregard the expressed instruction in the law by the legislature, and institute these taxes on us without due process,” Delamar added.

Commissioner Chris Mele, a toll opponent and one of two county representatives on the Down East Rural Planning Organization, won’t attend the public hearing due to an out-of-state commitment she said was planned months ago. Commissioner Kenny Heath of Arapahoe, the commissioners’ alternate member, will attend and is expected to speak.

Mele said that when the RPO last met in December it appeared Pamlico had the support of surrounding counties, which include Craven, Jones, Carteret and Onslow in the RPO.

Heath agreed that the DOT board shouldered the blame for the new round of hearings.

“From the very beginning, they didn’t look at any other avenue,” he said. “They immediately jumped on ferry tolls and this is what they are expecting to happen.”

Heath said he was not convinced the legislature was being kindly to coastal counties by passing responsibility to the RPOs.

“I believe we have legislators on our side, but I do believe it was only half-hearted,” he said. “To me it was a skirting of the responsibility of our legislators. It could have been handled in the General Assembly without going to the RPOs. They could have treated like it always has been. Basically, they are pitting us and all the surrounding counties against each other.”

Delamar predicted the ferry issue will not go away.

“This is not the last whack they (DOT) is going to make,” he said. “They are going to take a whack every year and Dare and Hyde and Beaufort (counties) and all of us need to understand, when Dare needs something we need to be there for them. When Hyde needs something, we need to be there for them and when ferries come around, we’ll ask them to hold firm with us. If people start freelancing and making side deals, we are going to have a problem.”

Charlie Hall can be reached at 252-635-5667 or Charlie.hall@newbernsj.com